Leadership changes in China, Japan and South Korea along with the United States have marked another tumultuous year for the Asia-Pacific region. With 2013, the Year of the Water Snake in Chinese mythology, around the corner, what might be in store for the region’s economy? According to “feng shui experts” quoted byMalaysia’s top-selling daily The Star, the […]
THE denouement of the fiscal-cliff drama, unsurprisingly, ended up with a vote that split Republicans in the House. John Boehner, Paul Ryan and 83 other GOP representatives joined 172 Democrats in voting to pass the compromise bill crafted in the Senate that will raise taxes on income over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples. Just […]
To begin on a happy note, the world didn’t end this year. Dec. 21 came and went without a sign of the Four Horsemen, leaving the Mayans (or rather their ancestors) with egg all over their faces. It just goes to show the perils of prediction — but why would we let that deter us? […]
Barack Obama just can’t get enough out of Joe Biden these days. And anybody who’s been following Biden’s steady ascent in stature over the last several years — from gaffe-happy presidential contender to one of the most powerful vice presidents in U.S. history — couldn’t be less surprised. Perhaps the only surprise at all is […]
Not so long ago the question how to deal with China was an evolving conundrum. It is real now. As real as an elephant — looming large over all that it views, with a large appetite and largely prepared for a fight but peaceful until provoked. And just like the pachyderm, feared. In an increasingly […]
AMERICA, it appears, will go over the fiscal cliff after all, if only for a few days. But if all goes as planned, the worst of the cliff, a withering combination of tax increases and spending cuts, will be avoided. A deal nearing completion in the Senate would make permanent the tax cuts first enacted […]
For the last 60 years or so, the relationship between the US and the Gulf states can be likened to a Catholic marriage. Both were in need of each other and kept supporting each other in times of difficulty. During the oil crisis, the Gulf states came to the help of the world economy by […]
Ever since President Barack Obama announced on 21 December that John Kerry would succeed Hillary Clinton as the new US Secretary of State, much has been written in the Indian sub-continental press that the 69-year-old five-time Senator from Massachusetts has a tilt towards Pakistan and won’t be India’s friend. One reason given to “prove” this […]
Unless you’ve been on a different planet for the past 3 months, or don’t have children, you would know what I am referring to when I say ‘Gangnam Style’. PSY, and his catchy tune, is an international phenomenon that, through the power of You Tube, has reached virtually every computer screen and living room in […]
The year 2012 will go into the history books as one of contrasting transitions. China’s five- year cycle for Communist Party congresses and leadership turnover overlapped with the U.S.’s four-year electoral calendar. And if that once-in-20-years coincidence wasn’t enough, Egypt’s rocky shift from dictatorship to democracy continues to remind us of what transition looks like in […]
looking beyond borders 